1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and, more particularly, to an image processing apparatus and method suitable for editing a dynamic image.
2. Related Background Arts
In a known conventional arrangement, cuts constituting a dynamic image such as a video image are automatically or manually extracted from the dynamic image and rearranged along the time base in accordance with the reproduction order to edit the dynamic image.
The cuts indicate dynamic image data groups serving as minimum constituent units of the dynamic image and constituted by image data divided by scene changes. A scene indicates an image data group consisting of one or two or more cuts given a certain meaning. For this reason, the term xe2x80x9cscenexe2x80x9d may indicate one or more scenes.
Each extracted cut is represented by an icon (to be referred to as a cut icon hereinafter) consisting of a reduced representative image (normally a start frame) of the cut. The cut icon is displayed on a screen. A technique for manipulating this cut icon on the screen to edit a desired dynamic image is also available. For example, the order of cut icons is changed to change the reproduction order. According to this technique, dynamic image editing can be interrogatively performed while an edited dynamic image is obtained in real time.
According to this method, cut icons whose number is equal to the number of cuts are used, and dynamic image editing is a simple repetition of monotonous operations for rearranging these cut icons. Therefore, when the number of cut icons increases, the number of operations for the cut icons increases like a geometric series, thereby extremely complicating the manipulations.
In other words, a plurality of cuts cannot be edited at once. As described above, the number of repetitive, monotonous operations undesirably increases with an increase in the number of cuts. In addition to editing in units of cuts, an editor may want to edit using a scenario, i.e., a plurality of cuts as a unit which is different from that of each cut. In addition to dynamic image editing in units of cuts, demand has arisen for providing an editing technique capable of arbitrarily setting and selecting the unit of editing in accordance with the will of the editor.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus having an edit function for responding to the above demand.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus and method capable of editing a dynamic image in an arbitrary unit of editing.
In order to achieve the above objects of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus for editing image data constituted by an image data group of a plurality of frames. The image apparatus comprises memory means for classifying the image data group into a plurality of sets in accordance with characteristics of the image data and storing a relationship between the classified sets, display means for performing a hierarchical display of the sets of the image data in accordance with the relationship stored in the memory means, and designating means for designating editing of the image data group in units of the sets.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus and method capable of allowing a user to easily perform dynamic image editing.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus and method capable of performing edit processing for each hierarchical level after a dynamic image is hierarchically defined.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus and method having a novel function.